Taylor, B[en]. P. Lockwood, C. M. - Recipient.YUKON GOLD RUSH - ALs from Taylor to C. M. Lockwood, Salem, OR. July 9, 1900. Nome, AK: 1900 - Taylor left Oregon for Nome to establish a Post office. from Enroute [Vol 7, Issue 3], Nancy Pope tells us: "On June 21, 1900, John P. Clum, Alaska Territorial postal inspector, appointed Fred Lockley, Jr. and Ben Taylor as postal clerks in Nome, a city that had barely existed the year before." In this letter, less than a month after being appointed to this service, Taylor describes this wild gold-fever environment to his Salem colleague: Saloons are thick. One place has 15 in one row all side by side they run open as a grocery store at home and are full of every gambling game you can think of. Women go in just the same as men just like saloons at fair time. Every one has music of some kind. Some have dance halls. You dance with a girl then they take her up to the bar and treat costs 50 cents and that is the way it goes on that line. To try to describe it proper would be impossible. Ever since I been here you could count 50 ships in the harbor any day and they are coming and going every day. When we landed on the beach there was the worst jam you ever saw. Freight piled 10 feet high as far as you can see millions of dollars laying on the beach in everything you can think of, and everyone trying to get their stuff first, and only 4 or 5 feet from the water and that space filled with wagons and dog teams, men with carts and any old thing you could ask for. I wish you could see the power plants on the beach they are stretched out for miles up and down the beach. Steam, gasoline, coal, oil, windmills etcÉ.I wish you could see them and all the different kinds of machines for saving gold. Everyone has a different idea. And talk about your boat building, the people are making thousands of them to go to the different streams prospecting and mining. Tents on the beach are as thick as they can stick for 20 miles most all camped on the sand from 20 to 60 feet from the water.This town is a mushroom town, sprang from 5 thousand to 30000 in a week or two, such a jam on the street you can hardly push yourself along sometimes. The streets is so narrow in some places I can step across the street from side walk to side walk in two steps hardly as wide as out alleys at home. I have seen one team block the whole street. A drunk man can lay down on the side walk or in the street and sleep all day people walk around him and never bother him atall. ÉI could write for a week if I had the time to spare but will tell you all when I get homeÉ.I am making from 5 to 7 dollars a day now working in the Post Office. Am going mining in a few daysÉ.A wonderful first-hand account of life in Nome, during the heyday of the Yukon Gold Rush. "Received / Jul 23 1900 / C. M. Lockwood" red stamp to top of ALs p. 1. ALs & envelope with 'pin' holes to top left, otherwise, both in VG condition. Sheet size: 8-3/4" x 6". 4 filled sheets of lined paper [25 lines per page], with the first three with penciled text written recto only. The 4th also with 7 lines written on verso, Taylor's signature underneath. Letter accompanied by addressed & stamped envelope, postmarked. [Attributes: First Edition]

CONRAD, JosephLORD JIM Blackwood , 1900. Blackwood , 1900. First edition. Original green cloth, titles to spine gilt, decoration to spine and upper board and titles to upper board in black. A very good copy indeed, cloth clean and bright, with some scattered foxing and very slightly cocked.

Wilde, Oscar.The Importance of Being Earnest - A Trivial Comedy for serious People, in Three Acts. [Price One Shilling and Sixpence Net]. First Edition / Original Acting Edition (Textbook). London/New York, Samuel French, [no date] c. 1900.. 12,5 x 18,5 cm. [6], 52, [2] pages (with notice of Acting rights on pastedown and 2 pages of advertised works, published by French, in the back). Original printed wrappers (Softcover). Spinestrip damaged with more than two thirds missing. Bookblock a little shaky. But front and rear wrappers in very good condition besides a smaller, closed tear to front wrapper. Minor signs of foxing only. Few marginal notes in the text and some underlining in ink. COPAC locates only 6 copies worldwide (and all of them falsely mention 1893 as issue date, which results from the mentioning of the date on the titlepage as "Copyright , October 1893". On the Character - page below the title it correctly reads: "Played for the first time at the St.James's Theatre, on Thursday, February 14th, 1895". Remarkably rare and desirable collector's item of Wilde's masterpiece. Stuart Mason - Bibliography of Oscar Wilde - No. 384 (page 431). Later impression of the First Edition of the so-called "Acting Edition", containing an unrevised text ! This one sown, not wired. Barely any of these Textbooks survived. [The Dramatic Works of Oscar Wilde].. The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways. Contemporary reviews all praised the play's humour, though some were cautious about its explicit lack of social messages, while others foresaw the modern consensus that it was the culmination of Wilde's artistic career so far. Its high farce and witty dialogue have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde's most enduringly popular play. The successful opening night marked the climax of Wilde's career but also heralded his downfall. The Marquess of Queensberry, whose son Lord Alfred Douglas was Wilde's lover, planned to present the writer with a bouquet of rotten vegetables and disrupt the show. Wilde was tipped off and Queensberry was refused admission. Soon afterwards their feud came to a climax in court, where Wilde's homosexual double life was revealed to the Victorian public and he was eventually sentenced to imprisonment. His notoriety caused the play, despite its early success, to be closed after 86 performances. After his release, he published the play from exile in Paris, but he wrote no further comic or dramatic work. After the success of Wilde's plays Lady Windermere's Fan and A Woman of No Importance, Wilde's producers urged him to write further plays. In July 1894 he mooted his idea for The Importance of Being Earnest to George Alexander, the actor-manager of the St James's Theatre. Wilde summered with his family at Worthing, where he wrote the play quickly in August. His fame now at its peak, he used the working title Lady Lancing to avoid pre-emptive speculation of its content. Many names and ideas in the play were borrowed from people or places the author had known; Lady Queensberry, Lord Alfred Douglas's mother, for example, lived at Bracknell. There is widespread agreement among Wilde scholars that the most important influence on the play was W. S. Gilbert's 1877 farce Engaged; Wilde borrowed from Gilbert not only several incidents but, in Russell Jackson's phrase "the gravity of tone demanded by Gilbert of his actors". Wilde continually revised the text over the next months: no line was left untouched, and "in a play so economical with its language and effects, [the revisions] had serious consequences". Sos Eltis describes Wilde's revisions as a refined art at work: the earliest, longest handwritten drafts of the play labour over farcical incidents, broad puns, nonsense dialogue and conventional comic turns. In revising as he did, "Wilde transformed standard nonsense into the more systemic and disconcerting illogicality which characterises Earnest's dialogue". Richard Ellmann argues that Wilde had reached his artistic maturity and wrote this work more surely and rapidly than before. Wilde hesitated about submitting the script to Alexander, worrying that it might be unsuitable for the St James's Theatre, whose typical repertoire was relatively serious, and explaining that it had been written in response to a request for a play "with no real serious interest". When Henry James's Guy Domville failed, Alexander turned to Wilde and agreed to put on his play. Alexander began his usual meticulous preparations, interrogating the author on each line and planning stage movements with a toy theatre. In the course of these rehearsals Alexander asked Wilde to shorten the play from four acts to three. Wilde agreed and combined elements of the second and third acts. The largest cut was the removal of the character of Mr. Gribsby, a solicitor who comes from London to arrest the profligate "Ernest" (i.e., Jack) for his unpaid dining bills. Algernon, who is posing as "Ernest", will be led away to Holloway Jail unless he settles his accounts immediately. Jack finally agrees to pay for Ernest, everyone thinking that it is Algernon's bill when in fact it is his own. The four-act version was first played on the radio in a BBC production and is still sometimes performed. Peter Raby argues that the three-act structure is more effective, and that the shorter original text is more theatrically resonant than the expanded published edition. The play was first produced at the St James's Theatre on Valentine's Day 1895. It was freezing cold but Wilde arrived dressed in "florid sobriety", wearing a green carnation. The audience, according to one report, "included many members of the great and good, former cabinet ministers and privy councillors, as well as actors, writers, academics, and enthusiasts". Allan Aynesworth, who played Algernon Moncrieff, recalled to Hesketh Pearson that "In my fifty-three years of acting, I never remember a greater triumph than [that] first night". Aynesworth was himself "debonair and stylish", and Alexander, who played Jack Worthing, "demure". The Marquess of Queensberry, the father of Wilde's lover Lord Alfred Douglas (who was on holiday in Algiers at the time), had planned to disrupt the play by throwing a bouquet of rotten vegetables at the playwright when he took his bow at the end of the show. Wilde and Alexander learned of the plan, and the latter cancelled Queensberry's ticket and arranged for policemen to bar his entrance. Nevertheless, he continued harassing Wilde, who eventually launched a private prosecution against the peer for criminal libel, triggering a series of trials ending in Wilde's imprisonment for gross indecency. Alexander tried, unsuccessfully, to save the production by removing Wilde's name from the billing, but the play had to close after only 86 performances. The play's original Broadway production opened at the Empire Theatre on 22 April 1895, but closed after sixteen performances. Its cast included William Faversham as Algy, Henry Miller as Jack, Viola Allen as Gwendolen, and Ida Vernon as Lady Bracknell. The Australian premiere was in Melbourne on 10 August 1895, presented by Dion Boucicault, Jr. and Robert Brough, and the play was an immediate success. Wilde's downfall in England did not affect the popularity of his plays in Australia. Wilde's two final comedies, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, were still on stage in London at the time of his prosecution, and they were soon closed as the details of his case became public. After two years in prison with hard labour, Wilde went into exile in Paris, sick and depressed, his reputation destroyed in England. In 1898, when no-one else would, Leonard Smithers agreed with Wilde to publish the two final plays. Wilde proved to be a diligent reviser, sending detailed instructions on stage directions, character listings and the presentation of the book, and insisting that a playbill from the first performance be reproduced inside. Ellmann argues that the proofs show a man "very much in command of himself and of the play". Wilde's name did not appear on the cover, it was "By the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan". His return to work was brief though, as he refused to write anything else, "I can write, but have lost the joy of writing". (Wikipedia)

WELLS, H. GTALES OF SPACE AND TIME Harpers , 1900. Harpers , 1900. First edition. Original sand coloured cloth stamped in dark brown and gilt. A very good copy indeed, with a little wear to the corners and very slight dustiness to the cloth.

BRAMAH, Ernest.The Wallet of Kai Lung. London: Grant Richards, 1900 - Octavo. Original green pictorial cloth printed in black, white, and yellow, titles to spine and front cover in black. With the dust jacket, black cloth chemise and slipcase. Spine ends and bottom edges of boards lightly rubbed. An excellent copy in professionally restored dust jacket with original spine, covers, and flaps laid down on matching card stock. A few small white marks to slipcase. First edition, first issue, rare with dust jacket. The first of Bramah's books to feature Kai Lung.

[Zanzibar].Panoramic view of Zanzibar. Zanzibar, c. 1900.. In 5 parts, ca. 39 x 13.5 cms each. Silver gelatin prints, mounted on cardboard.. Rare set of original vintage photographs, taken from an elevation, showing the coastline of Zanzibar with various steamers as well as dock facilities. - Occasional slight fading, but very well preserved on the whole.

TESLA, NIKOLAThe Problem of Increasing Human Energy with Special Reference to the Harnessing of the Sun&#39;s Energy New York: The Century Company. New York: The Century Company. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. FIRST PRINTING of arguably Tesla&#39;s most famous essay, his classic and prescient article on solving some of the most important problems facing the modern world. Illustrated with 10 striking black and white photographs. Telsa&#39;s solutions to the problem of "increasing human energy" include, among other things, discussions of robotics, changes in agriculture and food production, and the remarkably foresighted possibility of harnessing solar energy. IN: The Century Magazine, Vol. LX, No. 2, June 1900, pp. 175-211. New York: The Century Company, 1900. Thick octavo, contemporary three-quarter dark blue calf over cloth boards. The entire volume (May - October, 1900) offered. General wear and scuffing to binding; text and Tesla article fine.

My cruise through the Mediterranean to the Orient "n.p., n.d.": ca. 1900-1904 ?], [Hamburg. "n.p., n.d.": ca. 1900-1904 ?]. [Hamburg. "Oblong 4to portfolio containing 61 photographic illustrations on sheets 9"" x 12"" (images themselves are generally 5"" x 7""); portfolio is canvas-covered and lettered in blue within an art nouveau border; some soiling of the portfolio, else near fine. & & Not found bibliographically. One of only two non-generic illustrations is that of Captain Kaempff on the bridge of the ship, showing a life-ring with the name Auguste Victoria. This liner began off-season pleasure cruises in the Mediterranean beginning in 1894. In 1904 she was sold to the Russian Navy. Another illustration shows the R.M.S. Hawarden Castle of the Union Castle Line which went out of service in 1904. The illustrations are otherwise all generic and were likely offered for sale to passengers of the Hamburg America Line. & & The views are largely in the eastern Mediterranean and Africa, with quite a few of Athens, Constantinople and Cairo, but also Palermo, Pompeii, Jaffa, Madeira, and Jerusalem, among others."

St. AugustineThe Confessions of St. Augustine: In Ten Books (T.E. Lawrence&#39;s Personal Copy) London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd., 1900. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd., 1900. This copy from the personal library of T. E. Lawrence, bearing his "From the Libray of T. E. Lawrence Clouds Hill" bookplate front endpage. The Lawrence library went on auction around the year 1937 and some copies from that library have, on very rare occasions, surfaced for sale. Bound in vellum, a limited edition of 400, this being copy # 80, printed at the Chiswick Press. Very Good, a couple of small chips from the vellum bottom edge rear cover, vellum soiled, a few spots of foxing to endpages, pencilled notation on title page, possibly in Lawrence&#39;s hand. . Limited and Numbered First Edition. Vellum. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Association Copy.

Klondyke Nugget] Samuel Franklin CodyJohn Bull's Advice. See the Klondyke Nugget [Original Chromoithograph Poster Advertising Performance of the Klondyke Nugget] Moody Brothers, Birmingham - [circa 1900]. () Very good. Original chromolithograph. 30" X 20". Margins of poster with a few small creases and closed tears, professionally repaired and not affecting image. Old, inconspicuous veritcal fold through poster. Top margin with two faint lines of colour offset from printing. Two small piece of paper, one partially removed, advertising the play (Dec 19th at Clarence Theater in Pontypridd, Wales) affixed to the image. A fantastic, full colour image advertising a performance of S.F. Cody's stage play, the Klondike Nugget. The image depicts John Bull giving a hearty "thumbs up," surrounded by characters personifying the United States (Uncle Sam) and various countries of the Empire, including an African in native dress, a kangaroo, a seated Native American, a seated Inuit, a man in Scottish garb, and others. Samuel Franklin Cody was a popular Western stage performer who travelled around the world re-enacting scenes from the old west. His Klondike show, first performed in 1898 and featuring members of his family, was among his most popular and successful. Cody was also an aviation enthusiast and is credited with the first powered flight in the United Kingdom. A scarce piece of Klondike Gold Rush ephemera. [Attributes: Hard Cover]

BAUM, L. FrankTHE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ Geo M. Hill , 1900. Geo M. Hill , 1900. First edition, first state of text and illustrations. Original publisher&#39;s light green pictorial cloth (variant B with publisher&#39;s name stamped in red at the base of the spine) stamped in red and green. Some wear and soiling to the cloth, hinges repaired. Contemporary gift inscription to front blank page. Plates opposite pages 14, 80, 150 with some fraying to the edges. Overall a very good copy. Twenty-four colour plates (including the title page) by W.W. Denslow, and two tone illustration throughout the text.

Berville, P.Scientific instrument: "La chambre claire universelle". . Paris, P. Berville, [ca. 1900]. Small 8vo. 28 pp., pictorial wrappers. (explanatory booklet) (AND) complete scientific instrument including 12 different lenses. In original pebbled cloth-covered box (27.5 x 6.3 x 3.5 cm).* This object is an intricate yet elegant optical drawing device which is used for reproducing on paper - with the aid of a complete set of lenses - any image or object from bacteria to mountain. The apparatus is named "Chambre claire universelle" (universal camera lucida), a copyrighted trade mark name by the Berville company. The accompanying booklet explains in word and images the properties and applications of the instrument. The Nekes collection of optical devices, prints, and games (Getty Museum, California) holds a similar item, as does the Photobibliothek.ch in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. The booklet is rarely offered for sale, and the apparatus itself is much rarer, especially in this complete state including the original box. Some very light wear to the box, booklet and instrument in a very good condition..

DOYLE, [Sir] Arthur Conan (1859-1930)The Great Boer War. With Maps London, Smith , Elder and Co., 1900. London, Smith , Elder and Co., 1900, 1900. First Edition. Octavo. 552pp. + 6pp. ads. One folding map at rear. Publisher&#39;s dark blue cloth, titled in gilt to sppine, ruled in blind to covers, coated drab endpapers. Textblock shaken in case, backstrip sunned, small portion of label to rear pastedown. A very good copy. Printed in a run of 5000 copies and heavily reprinted this book nethertheless manages to be difficult to find in acceptable condition. This example is a nice association copy, from the library of Rene de Chochor, director of the estate of A. Conan Doyle, whose main responsibility was to negotiate all the many contracts for cinema and ensure that copyrights were respected. Green and Gibson. Provenance; Ex-Christies 4074, lot 272 (part).

Neapolitan gouacheA FINELY PAINTED NEAPOLITAN GOUACHE - BAY OF NAPLES, CITY IN THE DISTANCE, VESUVIUS SMOKING TO THE RIGHT, A CHOPPY SEA WITH BOATS AND FISHERMEN WITH NETS. no date - Image size including gouache borders 37x52 cms, image size alone 31x47 cms. Date unknown but mounted on card with a print on the verso dating from around 1900. Gouache untitled. AN EXTRAORDINARILY FINELY PAINTED EXAMPLE OF THIS ITALIAN GENRE, in good fresh condition.

LANG, AndrewTHE GREY FAIRY BOOK Longmans , 1900. Longmans , 1900. First edition. 8vo. Original grey cloth with gilt lettering and vignettes. All edges gilt. A fine, bright copy with a few light spots of foxing to the preliminary leaves. Many black and white illustrations by H. J. Ford. Tales in this collection derive from Lithuania, East Africa, Germany and various other countries.

DOYLE, [Sir] Arthur Conan (1859-1930).The Great Boer War. With Maps. London, Smith , Elder and Co., 1900 - First Edition. Octavo. 552pp. + 6pp. ads. One folding map at rear. Publisher's dark blue cloth, titled in gilt to sppine, ruled in blind to covers, coated drab endpapers. Textblock shaken in case, backstrip sunned, small portion of label to rear pastedown. A very good copy. Printed in a run of 5000 copies and heavily reprinted this book nethertheless manages to be difficult to find in acceptable condition. This example is a nice association copy, from the library of Rene de Chochor, director of the estate of A. Conan Doyle, whose main responsibility was to negotiate all the many contracts for cinema and ensure that copyrights were respected. Green and Gibson. Provenance; Ex-Christies 4074, lot 272 (part). [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]

Bannerman, HelenThe Story of Little Black Sambo New York: F. A. Stokes, 1900. New York: F. A. Stokes, 1900. Book. Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. Rare 1st edn with all key points, stains and wear to cover esp. along edges but reasonably good internal condition, 27 lovely drawings, blue titles and kids&#39; trousers, tan spine binding, 12mo, v + 56pps, a few short open tears that can easily be repaired. Date is a guess as no copyright page which is important in establishing edition--Bannerman was very suspicious of publishers as the one in London bilked her, f/o first name on pastedown..

Bannerman, HelenLittle Black Sambo NY: Stokes, 1900. NY: Stokes, 1900. New York: published by Stokes. No Date indicated. Size is 16mo, 3-5/8" x 5-7/8". 56 pages with a gold-yellow cloth spine, pictorial covers lettered in light blue as shown. The corners and edges are worn and with normal (natural wear considering the age of the book and that it is a childrens&#39; book) soiling as shown in the many photos I have provided. Overall a very good copy. Both the rear and front hinges, as shown are broken, and have had no restoration-no glue, no tape. I have shown you photos of this rare book, "warts and all." The edgewear are photos of close-up shots, so you will know exactly the condition. Most show up with torn or ripped pages, crayon marks, whole sections missing, blank pages torn out, etc. ; a first issue of an historic book. And it is all here. The rest of the book is solid and intact with some foxing interiorially and soiling as shown. Small 1/4" edge closed tear to frontis page illustration as shown and 1/4" closed tear at bottom of picture on page 47. Printed on one side of the paper with each page of text facing a -- with a full page color illustration and with the preface explaining how this little book came to publication. No missing pages, as sometimes encountered. According to Yuill on page number three &#39;by 1900 The Story of Little Black Sambo had been published in the U.S. by Stokes. who had purchased the rights from Grant Richards. No remuneration went to Bannerman." This little book is accepted as the 1st American edition. Please look at the many illustrations taken. Charming edition of a classic work. Note that both the front and back covers have the pictorial illustration which is very important, making this the real First American Edition in the First State: (According to Barton, The Pictus Orbis Sambo, pages 116-118: "The first U.S. edition had the title and author lettering on the covers in pale blue, matching the color of Sambo&#39;s pants in the illustrations on the two boards. The second issue (1901) has the title in black, and the third issue (1902) has a red cloth spine" as opposed to a tan buckram cloth spine in the first and second issues.). Illus. by Illustrated in Color. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. Hard Cover. 1st edition, 1st State. Hardback. Good Condition Overall/No Jacket.